Wednesday, September 12, 2001

Good Easy on Wired Wired ran a piece on the Good Easy, which got picked up by Slashdot. For those nostaligia buffs out there, here's the original article.

More on the attacks This was put together by a reporter friend of mine in Paris. It illustrated how shocked people have been all around the world by yesterdays attack.

The bombings of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon dominated French media coverage and conversation at French schools, offices, and cafes Wednesday as the French officials condemned the attacks and deployed security forces across the country.

Le Monde headline: "America hit, the world seized with fright." Le Figaro: "The New War." Le Parisien came out with a special edition, with 22 pages of coverage. Liberation had no headline at all, letting a full front cover photo of lower Manhattan up in smoke do all the talking.

In a televised announcement Tuesday evening, French President Jacques Chirac called the terrorist attacks a “horrifying tragedy” and expressed his support for the American people.

"Never has a country in the world been the center of terrorist attacks of such magnitude and violence….What happened in the United States concerns us all," he said after an emergency cabinet meeting Tuesday evening. Troops were deployed at the borders, airports and government buildings, and military vehicles were seen rolling down the streets--as many as a dozen under a half hour by the Seine. Flags were at half mast and the Archbishop of Paris, Cardinal Jean Marie Lustiger held a mass in Notre Dame.

The Paris Bourse was down 7.4 percent. All flights to the US or Israel from France were canceled until at least 7pm.

Meanwhile, French rushed to check up on loved ones in New York and Washington, jamming phone lines to the US. The US Embassy switchboard was also overloaded. American tourists ran around cafes, asking where they could watch CNN on TV.

All day, France Info radio ran interviews of shocked French people wondering how such an event could have happened in a country. Some said they had stayed up all night to watch live news broadcasts.

"It's like the Eiffel Tower crashed. It's something you never imagine ever happening," said one.